]]>Recent research by Claire LaCanne and Dr. Jonathan Lundgren notes that while regenerative agriculture may have lower yields (29% on average), the profitability is consistently higher–with an average of 78% greater profit.

Of particular interest, regenerative agriculture also provides greater ecosystem services which also allows them to create pest-resilient systems that outperform farmers who are using chemical treatment. In fact, pests were 10-fold more abundant in insecticide-treated corn fields than on insecticide-free regenerative farms.

The research notes that to attain these kind of positive benefits requires “a systems-level shift” on the farm. In other words, if producers apply certain regenerative farming practices within their current production system, they are unlikely to produce the same results as noted by farmers who have achieved the results noted in the study. For this reason, HMI focuses on ecosystem function analysis in all our training, to help producers understand how nature functions and how management practices can help agricultural producers reap more benefits by working with those ecosystem processes rather than fighting against them with reliance on fertilizers and pesticides.

Holistic Management practitioner Gabe Brown has actually found that he has higher corn yields than his neighbors and has considerably more than 78% greater profit. Read his case study here.

Two experienced facilitators and practitioners of the Holistic Management framework guide you towards the completion of your Management Plan for the Farm & Ranch of your dreams in an all women’s class.

Topics Covered

Define a Farm & Ranch Goal that includes the triple bottom line

Prepare a starting farm and ranch inventory

Refine your ability to read the land and create a monitoring plan

Prepare yourself for success with a proactive Annual Financial Plan

Understand the role of animals in your soil health program and drought management plan

Instructors

Peggy Sechrist, HMI Certified Educator for over 25 years. Her scope of experience includes teaching workshops, working with ranching operations, non-profit organizations, and partnering with her husband, Richard, to create the first certified organic livestock operation in Texas in the 1990’s that included grass-fed beef and pastured poultry. As a team they also operated a regional CSA for seven years that peaked at 350 family members. Driven by personal interests, Peggy has studied and developed expertise in communication methodolgy and conflict mediation. Email contact: peggysechrist@gmail.com.

]]>https://holisticmanagement.org/educational-events/beginning-texas-farmers-ranchers-womens-class/feed/0New HMI Certified Educator in Finlandhttps://holisticmanagement.org/uncategorized/new-hmi-certified-educator-in-finland/
https://holisticmanagement.org/uncategorized/new-hmi-certified-educator-in-finland/#respondTue, 13 Mar 2018 15:09:15 +0000https://holisticmanagement.org/?p=28834HMI is excited to announce that Tuomas Mattila from Pusula, Finland just successfully completed his Holistic Management Certified Educator Training. Tuomas is a farmer, scientist and consultant. He has a Masters of Science in Agriculture and Forestry, a Masters in Science in Chemical Engineering, a Doctorate of Science Technology in Systems Analysis and Operations Research, […]

]]>HMI is excited to announce that Tuomas Mattila from Pusula, Finland just successfully completed his Holistic Management Certified Educator Training.

Tuomas is a farmer, scientist and consultant. He has a Masters of Science in Agriculture and Forestry, a Masters in Science in Chemical Engineering, a Doctorate of Science Technology in Systems Analysis and Operations Research, and 10 years of practical experience on managing his family farm. For the last three years he has been helping other farmers to regenerate their soils and improve their lives. Exposure to Holistic Management has been a key issue in wrapping everything together and moving things forward in a way which is truly sustainable, whole and fun. He is particularly interested in the application of Holistic Management to forestry, crop production, and to non-brittle temperate and boreal climates.

Tuomas has helped people and companies learn Holistic Management and implement on their farms. In addition, he offers consulting on soil management, nutrient management, minimum tillage and agroecological farming methods. Congratulations, Tuomas!

]]>https://holisticmanagement.org/uncategorized/new-hmi-certified-educator-in-finland/feed/0A Fresh Starthttps://holisticmanagement.org/educational-events/fresh-start-learning/
https://holisticmanagement.org/educational-events/fresh-start-learning/#respondMon, 12 Mar 2018 18:29:35 +0000https://holisticmanagement.org/?p=28886New Agrarian Program 2018 April 3 – October 9, 2018 New agrarian superheroes in the making, we’ve teamed up with Quivira Coalition’s New Agrarian Program to provide Holistic Management® training to apprentices, mentees, interns and new farmers and ranchers dedicated to making this world a better and greener place! Online and interactive (live teaching and recordings) Scholarships […]

New Agrarian Program 2018

April 3 – October 9, 2018

New agrarian superheroes in the making, we’ve teamed up with Quivira Coalition’s New Agrarian Program to provide Holistic Management® training to apprentices, mentees, interns and new farmers and ranchers dedicated to making this world a better and greener place!

Online and interactive (live teaching and recordings)

Scholarships available

Limited to new apprentices, interns and beginners

What You’ll Learn

You have a dream – now how are you going to do it and why?

Sustainable Decision-Making for Everyday Lives of Regenerative Heroes

How the World Works: Ecosystem Processes

You have land. Now what?

Planning Farm Efficiency and Other Important Stuff

Maximizing Dollars from Sunshine

Bringing Home the Bacon with a Lot Less Stress

Just how are you going to pay for all this? We have a plan and so will you.

Holistic Management makes it rain in more ways than one!

Great job growing it! Now let’s sell it.

Give Your Cash Cow Some Marketing Love

How to Make Fickle Consumers Your New BFF

Something to Chew On – Heal the Land While Making Money

Grow Grass for Your Mass and Keep Them Coming Back For More (just not too soon!)

Are you ready to make your dreams come true?
OK, let’s get started!

Thank you to our funder for this program.

Thank you to our partner in this program.

]]>https://holisticmanagement.org/educational-events/fresh-start-learning/feed/0Shade Improves Sustainability of Ohio Farmhttps://holisticmanagement.org/uncategorized/shade-improves-sustainability-ohio-farm/
https://holisticmanagement.org/uncategorized/shade-improves-sustainability-ohio-farm/#respondThu, 08 Mar 2018 20:39:10 +0000https://holisticmanagement.org/?p=28830Holistic Management practitioner, Drausin Wulsin completed his first season with a Shade Haven mobile shade structure on his farm, Red Stone Farm, in Cynthiana, Ohio in 2017. He’s already purchased another for the 2018 grazing season. “This is one of the tools that can lead to sustainability on a farm,” says Wulsin. “It gives one […]

]]>Holistic Management practitioner, Drausin Wulsin completed his first season with a Shade Haven mobile shade structure on his farm, Red Stone Farm, in Cynthiana, Ohio in 2017. He’s already purchased another for the 2018 grazing season.

“This is one of the tools that can lead to sustainability on a farm,” says Wulsin. “It gives one the ability to micromanage the land. It is a very effective tool.”

Farming for about 20 years, Wulsin left a career in the financial industry to farm full time. Today 150 bovine units, a couple hundred sheep, some hogs and laying hens graze the fertile lands of Red Stone Farm. Certified organic since 2013, the farm added organic dairy to the mix two years ago.

Wulsin and his wife Susan operate their farm, about 85 miles east of Cincinnati, and a business, Grassroots Farm & Foods, that sells their grass-fed meats and milks to restaurants and people in southern Ohio. They also sell their meats and Susan’s hand-prepared foods on the Grassroots Farm & Foods website.

Wulsin adheres to grass-based, sustainable farm practices, including planned grazing. “We are constantly moving the animals to fresh pasture and fresh grass,” he says. “We have long rest periods of 30 to 90 days. We move them slowly when the grass is growing slowly.”

He says one of his biggest challenges as a livestock farmer is winter feed. “There are a number of ways to address that. One of which is building organic matter in the soil, so that you grow more feed and have a longer grazing season.”

The Shade Haven is an effective tool for building organic matter. “The beauty of the structure is that it allows you to surgically address issues of shade and issues of infertility,” says Wulsin. “You can place the structure where you want in order to get the greatest impact. It gives me ultimate mobility and flexibility to focus on a small scale on a piece of land. That eventually is going to build organic matter. We move manure away from the trees and into the pastures, that is going to help our pastures and help our organic matter, and ultimately help our bottom line.”

Pleased with the performance of his first Shade Haven, Wulsin ordered another. “I think it is very well-designed, good looking, mobile and durable. We have had some high winds and it is not affected.”

The two Shade Havens used by Wulsin are the SH1200 model. Shade Haven added a third mobile shade model, the SH600, in late 2017. The new unit is ideal for herds of 20-30 cattle and sells for $11,900. But if you mention you heard about the SH600 from HMI you’ll get $1000 off. Be sure to place your order before April 15 to get this introductory offer!

]]>https://holisticmanagement.org/uncategorized/shade-improves-sustainability-ohio-farm/feed/0Grass Genetics Selection 101https://holisticmanagement.org/featured-blog-posts/grass-genetics-selection-101/
https://holisticmanagement.org/featured-blog-posts/grass-genetics-selection-101/#commentsSat, 03 Mar 2018 01:27:40 +0000https://holisticmanagement.org/?p=28811Guest blog by Allen Williams, HMI Advisory Council member, and Soil Health Consultant. To read more of Allen’s work, visit his website. To most people genetic selection can be a complicated task. There is so much data out there that many folks get lost in the translation. What to use and how much emphasis to […]

]]>Guest blog by Allen Williams, HMI Advisory Council member, and Soil Health Consultant. To read more of Allen’s work, visit his website.

To most people genetic selection can be a complicated task. There is so much data out there that many folks get lost in the translation. What to use and how much emphasis to put on each trait becomes an overwhelming issue. EPD’s, actual trait measurements, phenotype, pedigrees, ultrasound data, linear measurements, other people’s recommendations — which do I use and why? With all the data available we often find ourselves floating in a sea of confusion.

On top of that, we also have environmental effects on genetic expression. The environment that our animals are raised and produced in can have a profound impact on how their genetics actually express themselves. This involves what they eat, the climate they are adapted to, exposure to pathogens, and many other environmental factors. This is often called epigenetics. Epigenetics is the study of the cellular and physiological phenotypic trait variations caused by external or environmental factors that switch genes on and off. It affects how cells read genes instead of being caused by changes in the DNA sequence. That’s a mouthful I know, but it profoundly affects what happens on the ground in our livestock operations.

I cannot possibly cover everything pertinent to genetic selection in a single article, so I will outline the basics of genetic selection in this article. I will follow with more detailed information relative to the impacts of our selection criteria and to epigenetics in future articles.

The Basics of Effective Genetic Selection

Let’s cut to the chase here. Since we are talking about genetic selection, we are discussing breeding stock. I will use cattle as the basis for our discussion, but the principles apply to other species of livestock as well.

The number one trait that impacts pure profitability in our herds is longevity. Yes, how long our breeding stock can stay in the herd and be productive. In the case of a beef herd, we are talking about how long a cow can stay in the herd before she is culled for any reason – failing to breed or rebreed, unsoundness, disease, injury, etc. For many years, when I was in academia, I worked with the national IRM program (Integrated Resource Management). That involved me collecting detailed production and financial data on hundreds of beef cattle operations. What I found in the analysis of that data was that the average beef cow has 4.2 calves in her lifetime before she is culled for any reason. However, it takes 5 calves in a lifetime before a cow breaks even on her investment, on average. So, that means the average beef cow in the U.S. never makes the producer any money. No wonder lots of folks say that “you can’t make any money in the cow business”. We are not making money on a cow until she has her 6th calf and beyond. To do that we are looking at an 8 year old cow, if we start calving as a two year old. So, she has to last a long time and be highly productive that entire time.

We routinely have cows that last well into the late teens and even to 20 or so years old, having never missed a calf in their lifetime. Those cows are highly profitable and produce daughters that will do the same. To last that long they have to exhibit the other important traits that I consider to be the most critical. These are adaptability, fertility, and soundness.

Adaptability is just what the name infers — the ability of your livestock to perform and perform well in your specific environment. This is not just the climate in your region, but also the forages that the livestock will be grazing, their ability to maintain adequate body condition in all seasons of the year, and even your individual management style and skill set. All heavily influence the ability of your livestock to adapt to your “environment”. Without adaptability, you cannot have longevity.

How do you select animals for adaptability? The best way to accomplish this is to pay frequent visits to the folks you purchase your seedstock from, whether that is bulls or females. You need to really know how they manage their cattle, what forages their cattle are exposed to, what is their grazing management plan, what supplements are used on the seedstock operation and why, are the seedstock pampered or expected to perform in similar conditions as your cattle. Do they have a similar breeding and calving season? Do they have a similar management style?

My advice is to not buy your bulls from sales where you have had no prior exposure to the seedstock breeders and do not know their programs. Never make your selection decisions based on numbers in a catalog alone. That means EPD’s, calving weights, weaning weights, yearling weights, etc. These numbers will not tell you anything about a bull’s ability to be fully adapted to YOUR farm and your management. Instead, do your homework and visit the breeders you anticipate buying seedstock from. Learn their operations, their breeding program, their management style. Ask to see the mature cow herd first, not the heifers or bulls for sale. The mature cows will tell you a lot about the adaptability of the cattle they are producing. I always ask to see the oldest cows in the herd, so I can gauge longevity. If they do not have many cows over 10 years of age, how can I expect their genetics to produce cows that will last past 10 years of age in my herd?

Fertility is an absolute requirement for a breeding herd. You simply cannot afford to keep females and males around that are not sound breeders. For cows, that means they must calve every 365 days or less and breed back within 90 days after calving each year. In addition, they must produce a live calf at weaning every year. That is their job. That is why they exist on your farm. You cannot make excuses for a cow and give her second and third chances to breed. Nor can you excuse her for failing to produce a live calf at weaning. Doing so will eventually propagate inferior genetics in your herd and cost you your profitability.

When I was an academic (university professor) with specialties in genetics and reproductive physiology, I used to think I was one smart cookie. I thought I could do a great job of replacement heifer selection and would use all the “tools” available. That meant using EPD’s, frame scores, pelvic area measurements, reproductive tract scores, phenotype, live weight measurements, linear measurements, etc. I was so bogged down in numbers (data) I could not see past my own nose. When I left the university, almost 20 years ago now, I got a lesson in reality. I became heavily involved in the grass fed beef sector and started having to select cattle that performed well on forages without being routinely supplemented. At that point, I realized that all my prior training and teaching was really just an impediment.

So, how do my partners and I select heifers today? Quite simple. We allow all heifers an opportunity to breed for a 60-70 day period, for calving at two years of age. After bulls are pulled, we ultrasound pregnancy test each heifer. Those that were able to conceive within the 60-70 day window bought themselves a ticket to the breeding herd. Those that did not breed bought themselves a ticket to the grass finishing herd. That simple. No EPD’s, no reproductive scores, no live weight data, no linear measurements. None needed.

For first calf heifers, if they fail to rebreed within 90 days of calving they go straight into the grass finishing herd as well. Since they are bred to calve first as a two year old (24 months of age), they are still well under 3 years of age when harvested. And guess what? Those first calf heifers that fail to rebreed will fatten quickly, marble well, and eat very well.
I must admit that this has simplified life significantly. No more pouring over data wondering which trait measurements are the most important. No more excuse making for the cattle. This is basically a form of natural selection that occurs within the micro-environment of our own farm. We make money with the heifers that breed and those that fail to breed. They either become mothers or meat. We win financially either way.

For bulls, it is quite simple as well. We select those that best match our desired phenotype and prove within the first year of life that they can perform well on a forage-based diet. They must be highly masculine at a year of age, with a crest to the neck, heavy in the shoulders, and excellent testicular development. In addition, they must be deep bodied with depth not only in the mid-section, but also in the heart girth and flank, with tremendous expression and explosion in the lower 2/3rds of the mid-rib. When viewed from behind, the widest part of the bull should be his mid-section. An 18 month old bull should be fully capable of breeding at least 30 females in a short breeding season. At two years of age, they should be able to cover 50 cows or more.

We tend to use multi-sire herds for breeding, so several bulls are placed with each herd. After birth of the calves, simple DNA parentage analysis is used to tell us which bulls performed and which ones did not. For those that did not sire many calves, their life as a breeder is over and none of their progeny are saved as replacement stock. This prevents us from propagating inferior, poorly adapted genetics.

Soundness is the final trait we will discuss today. Soundness is crucial to fertility, adaptability, and longevity. Without soundness, the cattle will fall quickly out of the herd. What is a “sound” animal? This is an individual that is sound in the feet and legs, in their overall skeletal structure, udders and teats (for females) and testicular develop (for males), eyes, and even their minds. I want an individual who has four well placed legs, can travel unimpeded, with no obvious defects to their feet and leg placement. This becomes increasingly important as an animal ages and gets heavier. If there are feet and leg problems they will manifest themselves in the older, heavier animals. For females, a sound udder and teats are critical to longevity. I absolutely refuse to deal with cows that have udder problems or balloon teats. They will cull themselves quickly. For bulls, the same goes for testicular development. If they do not have excellent testicular circumference and length, plus even testicular placement and orientation, I do not want them as breeding stock. You do not have to physically measure this – you can see this readily.

Good eyesight into old age is also an important criteria for good breeding stock. They have to be able to see to travel well, to perform, and to be desired breeding stock. In addition, they must be sound minded, meaning they must have a gentle and even disposition. When I was a young man, I thought it was fun to fool with bad tempered cattle. Now that I have some age to me, and a little bit more wisdom (that may be questioned by some), I realize that life is too short for bad tempered livestock. My body does not heal as fast as it used to. If I want a rodeo, I go to see one. I do not want a rodeo on my home farm.

These are the basics of sound genetic selection. Don’t make it more complicated that it has to be, or think you are smarter than everyone else. In the articles that follow, I will talk more specifically about what size our cattle need to be to be truly profitable, how to know when an animal is truly finished and ready for harvest, and how epigenetics impact everything we do on our farms.

]]>https://holisticmanagement.org/featured-blog-posts/grass-genetics-selection-101/feed/2Whole Farm/Ranch Business Planning in Pescadero, California a Successhttps://holisticmanagement.org/feature-story/whole-farmranch-business-planning-pescadero-california-success/
https://holisticmanagement.org/feature-story/whole-farmranch-business-planning-pescadero-california-success/#respondFri, 02 Mar 2018 13:12:06 +0000https://holisticmanagement.org/?p=28800A total of 23 people attended the Whole Farm/Ranch Business Planning training that took place at TomKat Ranch, in Pescadero, California. The classes began in October and wrapped up in December, 2018. The classes covered a variety of topics, including: Developing a management inventory to more effectively manage resources Clarifying farm or ranch goals and […]

]]>A total of 23 people attended the Whole Farm/Ranch Business Planning training that took place at TomKat Ranch, in Pescadero, California. The classes began in October and wrapped up in December, 2018.

The classes covered a variety of topics, including:

Developing a management inventory to more effectively manage resources

Clarifying farm or ranch goals and utilize new ways to manage them

Using a decision-making tool for making sustainable and effective decisions

Developing time management tools to improve labor efficiency

Improving management of employees, interns and apprentices

Developing effective implementation and monitoring of financial systems that work

Developing strategies to increase profitability

Developing an effective marketing plan that utilizes current resources

Determining best marketing strategies for your products and situation

Determining marketing needs and additional resources necessary to address them

Creating timeline for strategic initiative implementation

Here are some of the results from the Whole Farm/Ranch Business Planning training at TomKat Ranch:

Intend to change management practices as a result of this session – 100%

More confident in ability to manage time on farm as a result of session – 100%

Intend to complete or modify a financial plan for farm – 100%

Intend to complete or modify a marketing plan as a result of session – 100%

]]>https://holisticmanagement.org/feature-story/whole-farmranch-business-planning-pescadero-california-success/feed/0Holisti-Kitchen: Ohio Chili Soup Recipehttps://holisticmanagement.org/food/holisti-kitchen-ohio-chili-soup-recipe/
https://holisticmanagement.org/food/holisti-kitchen-ohio-chili-soup-recipe/#respondThu, 01 Mar 2018 23:26:11 +0000https://holisticmanagement.org/?p=28805In New Mexico, “chile” (with an -e) means something entirely different than it does to most of the country. I’m talking about that highly addictive Hatch pepper that we New Mexicans unashamedly crave for breakfast, lunch and dinner. “Red or Green?” must be the most FAQ here, no doubt. And so is the reason my New […]

In New Mexico, “chile” (with an -e) means something entirely different than it does to most of the country. I’m talking about that highly addictive Hatch pepper that we New Mexicans unashamedly crave for breakfast, lunch and dinner. “Red or Green?” must be the most FAQ here, no doubt.

And so is the reason my New Mexican family calls this recipe “Ohio” Chili Soup – it’s namesake coming from our ancestors of that lush, green state. To them it was just Chili Soup, because it has beans, meat and tomatoes. There is no spicy New Mexican pepper in this soup (though we’ve been guilty of adding it) and it’s not what you may think of when you hear chili, either.

What it is to us is the very simple, nutritious and highest-ranking among all comfort foods that has been feeding our family for well over 100 years. We come from hardworking Ohio farmers who had a great respect for life and for nature and who mostly just ate what they grew and raised. Their hearty Chili Soup nourished them, warmed them and is still today a favorite to us “city folk”. And we make it year-round, even in the 95° high desert heat.

In honor of my Great-Grandma who brought this one to the great Southwest in the 1950s, I’m so happy to share this tasty soup with you. It doesn’t get much simpler than this!

*I also like to use fresh tomatoes if I have enough on hand. You may also want to add tomato paste with a some water to achieve the taste and consistency you prefer. I like this very soupy, some prefer it thick and more stew-like.

Instructions

In a large pot, brown ground beef with onion, salt and pepper until cooked or nearly cooked. Drain grease.

Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, potatoes and corn. Simmer on low to medium heat for 1-2 hours, until potatoes are cooked thoroughly and all flavors have had a chance to combine well. Add beans in at last 1/2 hour.

Add more salt and pepper, if desired.

Serve with oyster crackers, table crackers or whatever you like. My Grandma even added a spoonful of grassfed butter to her bowl, which made it even more savory.

This will make a huge pot of soup with 20 or more servings, and it freezes and reheats beautifully. I hope you and your family enjoys it in good health. Don’t forget to buy from your local farmers and ranchers!